Studies in Irian Languages, Part II

On verbs, subject prefixation is obligatory with human subjects, except with (mi)nton 'child' and
mamir 'person', unless gender is stressed. The word order in verbal clauses is SVO. A verbaliser bi- can
be used to change loans or words from other word classes into a verb: bi-tutup VB-close 'close', bi-sik
'VB-be.unable' from sik 'not.possible'. In sequences, verbs are obligatorily inflected, as in (3):

'Research for this article was conducted under the auspices of ISIR (Irian Jaya Studies: a programme for

interdisciplinary research, 1993-2000), a priority programme of NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific

Research) which is financed by WOTRO (Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research). The

programme is carried out in cooperation with LIPI (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia). I wish to express my

gratitude to Dr Hasan Alwi, head of the Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, for his willingness to be my

sponsor.

^ote that in a number of cases classifiers are required in combination with numerals.

(3) De-jap de-frur de-tar bain.
3PL-live 3PL-make 3PL-possess garden

They live and work in their garden.

Verbs are not inflected for the marking of Tense-Mood- Aspect. A general question-marking particle -e
indicates the interrogative (4) in clauses without question word; the imperative mood is expressed by the
second person, sometimes followed by the clause-final demonstrative ka (5); the prohibitive is expressed
by /an 'not' (6).

(4) An-un si jan-e?
2SG-go to house-QM

Are you going home?

Nen-dokwa njep na nen-kapet! Jan! An-dokwa

ka!

2PL-carry firewood for 2PL-cut no 2SG-carry

that

You must carry the firewood and cut it! No, you must carry (it)!

An-wandar jan!

2SG-shame not

(5)

(6)

Don't be ashamed!

Alienable nouns are possessed with the possessive pronouns -tar and -bi [de-tar jan 3PL-P0S house
'their house') and inalienable nouns by means of bound pronouns [n-prek 3SF-foot 'her feet'). The noun
bar 'thing' occurs frequently with other nouns or as nominaliser with words from other word classes:
ba(r)-bwa thing-leaf 'vegetables', ba(r)-kotot thing-laugh 'funny'. Nouns referring to human beings and
names are marked for gender: nton-a child-3SM 'boy', Flora-n Flora-3SF 'Flora'.

Adjectives follow the noun and can be further specified with the relative marker ma (iw mafun bird
beautiful 'a beautiful bird' vs iw ma mafun 'the bird that is beautiful'). In predications, adjectives can
occur as verb and take subject prefixation: a-umfirum 3SM-yellow 'he looks yellow'. Adjectives such as
kwaik 'strong, hard' can also be used as adverbs: de-jap hvaik 3PL-sit strong 'they are firmly seated'.

Some spatial prepositions have an aspectual meaning with verbs of motion as illustrated in (7-9). Ku
'to, in, at' may be prefixed with a-, which I have glossed as '3SM'.

(7) In-aw si Manokwar.
iSG-go.home to Manokwari

I go home to Manokwari.

(8) An-un ma Anja.
3SM-go to Anjai

He has gone to Anjai (and is there now).

(9) Saji n-un ku Anja.
once iSG-go to Anjai

Once I have been to Anjai.

In this brief survey of Mpur morphology only a few vords can be said about the deictic system, which
requires extensive research since it is not very well uncerstood yet. Spatial deictics are expressed by the
basic demonstratives ki 'here/this', ka 'there/that' and nek 'over there'. The demonstratives occur vrith
the prefix morpheme n- , probably '3SF' and, if used attibutively, with relative pronoun ma and n- '3SF'
as shown in the following examples:

(10) Aka dwaw det bain ma-n-h.
and.then pig eat garden REL-3SF-this

And then the pig will eat up this garden.

(11) A-mim bapu ma Amtur a-ni-mek.
3SM-arrive far.away at Amtur 3SM-come-there

He arrived far away at (the river) Amtur there.

The anaphoric ta and focus/topic marking tjj indicate textual deictics. They are shovra in examples

(12,13):

(12)

A-wot ka

71(011

ni

tut

jiton

mafun

mim.

3SM-see that

child

FOC

because

child

beautiful

so

He looked after that child because it was so beautiful.

(13) Aka n-jat a-ta kin.

and.then 3SF-wound 3SM-ANA healthy

And then her woimd was cured.

The anaphoric elements can be prefixed by a- '3SM?' and ba(r?) 'thing?': a-ta. ba-ta, ba-ni. My
consultant insisted that in the forms with a-, initial b- is omitted and that it comes from bar 'thing'. They
may be combined with the demonstrative ki 'this'and ka 'that'.

In narrative texts, the conjunctions min-ta-h like-ANA-this, min-ta-[a)re like-ANA-so and some other
combinations with min- 'like-' with the meaning 'having arrived at this point, things were like that' (in
short: 'like that'), occur very frequently in clause-initial as well as clause-final position. Finally, an
interesting feature in Mpur is the frequent occurrence of clitics, which function in discourse as
interrogative, continuation, focus, temporal marker, vocative, and as the expression of emotive emphasis
(see also Ode 1997a; 1998). Though some clitics, like interrogative clitic -e and clitic -o in enumerations,
have a clear meaning of their own, it is not easy to explain differences between the clitics. I will gloss all
of them as CL.

The text for this contribution is told in the coastal dialect of Saukorem, Amberbaken, in which for
example Mpur wo'p 'masses.of.water' is realized as op. Notational conventions, apart from the
abbreviations listed at the beginning of this volume, are the following. Semivowel insertion between
vowels is indicated by Y; vowels and consonants that are not pronounced are presented in parentheses.
Stem-initial /d/ preceded by a prefix ending in a vowel is pronounced as [r]; this may also occur in
connected speech if a preceding word ends in a vowel. In the text I spelled according to the actual
pronunciation of /d/ as [d] or as [r]. Likewise I followed in the spelling the actual pronunciation of word-
initial /n/ before bilabials as [m], of word-initial fh/ as [w, jJ] in for instance the deictic elements [a)bata
and bani and in bar 'thing' and of word-initial /p/ which is sometimes pronounced as [w, b, P).

"N

ISSN 0126 -2874

NUSA

LINGUISTIC STUDIES OF INDONESIAN
AND OTHER LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA

VOLUME 47, 2000

STUDIES IN IRIAN LANGUAGES

PART II

Edited by
GER P. REESINK